Freedoms should be cherished

Polly Toynbee argues for a balance to be drawn between civil liberty on the one side, and solutions to social problems on the other (The left should beware the rightwing wolf in civil liberties sheep's clothing, December 14). She is wrong.

Who among the neglected or ill-treated would be better off if the police were given the power to arrest without reasonable cause? Does the power to detain terrorist suspects for 28 days give help to the helpless? Who really benefits from the control-order regime? Henry Porter has identified a real danger to us all. So many laws have now been passed that give needlessly wide powers to the executive that the legal tools for the creation of a dictatorship are now nearly all in place. Asbos, control orders and serious crime prevention orders are so widely drafted that they could easily be perverted to suppress political dissent. It is worth considering how successful the campaign against section 28 would have been if all protesters could have been arrested. What if they could also have been placed under permanent house arrest or required to obey the orders of a named police officer?

The power to do these things are now on the statute book. They aren't now being used to stifle political opposition, but there is no guarantee for the future.Graham Campbell, Hellingly, East Sussex

It was a relief to learn from Polly Toynbee that Henry Porter's advocacy for civil liberties is no more than a decadent luxury for the middle classes.

However, Toynbee should consider where are all these lawyers to protect the poor, abused and the disadvantaged that she is so concerned with? I am a solicitor with more than 20 years' involvement in the legal aid sector. What has happened under Labour is no less than a sustained attack on an independent legal aid system that was founded by Labour 60 years ago. Each week there are more dedicated solicitors withdrawing from the system. There are now fewer solicitors available to defend and represent those faced with illegal eviction, domestic abuse and unlawful arrest.

The Legal Services Commission has revealed that under the current legal aid reforms, 55% of legal aid firms will face a pay cut. There will therefore be substantially more human suffering and social injustice if the government continues with its policy of ensuring that there are no lawyers left to protect those who need it most.John Killah, Frome, Somerset

Toynbee deplores "the individualistic my-rights culture of our times", but she should remember Thomas Paine's point (in his Rights of Man) that all human rights are reciprocal: "Whatever is my right as a man, is also the right of another."

Toynbee might also think about Paine's remark (in Common Sense): "Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is a necessary evil." This was not an argument against a welfare state, of which Paine was an early advocate, but a recognition that all governments can threaten liberty. But then in his time Britain was engaged in imperialist wars abroad and the suspension of habeas corpus at home - everything is different now.Charles Scanlan, London

Good luck to Mark Thomas with his attempt to put Gordon Brown in the dock for breach of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (Help me put Gordon in jail, December 13).

It is in large part because of his sustained campaigning that this attack on the right to protest has a chance of being repealed in the new year. Nonetheless, there are already ominous signs that this will be more spin than substance. Indeed, the first two questions raised in the current Home Office consultation document (Managing Protest Around Parliament) concern the "harmonisation of powers to manage marches and assemblies ... throughout the UK". Such "harmonisation" could mean granting the police new powers to ban public assemblies anywhere. It is vital that anyone who cares about the right to protest respond to the government consultation by January 17 2008.Emma Sangster, repeal-socpa.info